In the Kabbalastic symbolism of the Genesis of Moses, in Eden there was a Tree with 4 fruits which gave immortality to those who ate them. In India, this Tree is mentioned in the 135th hymn of the tenth book of the Rig-Veda. It means the perfect life which quenches the desire to be reborn in mortal life. By its fruits the blessed are nourished, gaining immunity from the destiny to be reincarnated in the worlds of pain.

 

The ‘Tree of Life’, or Cosmogonic, is the life itself of God through Christ. For Christians, there are references in the Apocalypse of John, chpts. 2:7, 22:2, 22:14. It is also Archeosophy fulfilled.

 

It expresses wisdom, immortality and theosis (see Theosis). In Genesis compare chpts 2:9; 3:22; 3:24. The ‘Tree of Life’ also means the Man awakened to the life of God, in whose subtle body are found the centers of life or lotus flowers, which, as soon as they open, enter into action, awakening man to the cosmic life.

 

When the ‘Tree of Life’ is considered like Man, then, the trunk is the spine, the fruits are associated with the regions of the brain, heart and genitals. A Yogi who meditates on his chakras is said to gather the fruits of the ‘Tree of Life’. Alchemists, including Pernety in his Dictionnaire Mytho-Hermetique (Paris, 1737), identify it with the Elixir or Philosopher’s Stone, masterpiece of nature assisted by human industry.

 

The Alchemical comments of the Benedictine Dom Antoine Joseph Pernety- Fables Egyptiennes et Grecques Devoilees (1758) - are meaningful, where the Garden of the Hesperides is recalled. In Proverbs (3:18; 11:30; 3:12; 15:4) it is the wisdom used by God in the creation of the universe, to which the accomplished Initiate participates. Rummaging through the Atharvaveda we read that Brahma (God creator) is father, mother and son of himself, and is the tree through which the things are made and the foundation of the created universe. The sinner, the wicked, the black magician, can neither draw near to nor eat the fruits of the Tree of Life.

 

In some representations of ancient Egypt, in a sycamore tree, the goddess of the sky gives life to the soul of the dead, administering some foods and pouring the heavenly drink: the famous water of life which quenches thirst forever, of which Christ speaks about to the Samaritan woman.

 

The Tree of Life had an enormous development in the Humanistic phase of Hermetic symbolism with C. Della Riviera- Il Mondo magico degli Heroi (Milan, 1605).

 

Tommaso Palamidessi

excerpt from"TREE OF LIFE"

in the 40^th Booklet of Archeosophy